Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

242 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
romania (1957), albania (1962), Sharjah/Mongolia (1963), and poland (1964). 17
In the fall of 1958, the Soviet Union began to market its frst fltered cigarette,
using Laika’s name and image on the wrapper, and initiating a now 50-year-old
process of commodifcation and “branding” of the space dog. 18 the high-relief at
the base of the monument “to the Conquerors of Space” (dedicated in 1964) at
the exhibition of achievements of the National economy 19 (VDNKh) includes
an alert, larger-than-life Laika, whose capsule provides the foundation for a rocket
guided by the muscular male arms of an anonymous socialist-realist human.
While the pins, stamps, and monuments of the 1950s and 1960s might
be fairly straightforward commemorations of a signifcant event or individual,
other tributes to Laika were more complex. 20 Outside the Soviet Union, at least
two musical memorials addressed the main concerns raised by Sputnik II—
american preoccupation with the specter of Soviet domination and widespread
shock over sending a dog to its death in space.
“Sputniks and Mutniks,” recorded by ray anderson and the homefolks
in 1958, playfully captured the sensationalism and insecurity Laika’s fight
generated in the United States. 21 Jaunty and playful, the song’s quick tempo and
bluegrass style is at odds with the anxiety over the potential for weaponizing
space expressed in the lyrics:
Sputniks and mutniks fying through the air
Sputniks and mutniks fying everywhere
they’re so ironic, are they atomic?
those funny missiles have got me scared.
While anderson’s song received relatively little distribution before Jayne Loader
and pierce and Kevin raferty identifed it as a “must have” for the soundtrack
of their satirical documentary Atomic Cafe (1982), the second song from this
era, “russian Satellite,” enjoyed instant and enduring acclaim. as one of the
Mighty Sparrow’s three Carnival road March Competition winners from 1958,
the song helped catapult the “Sparrow” (born Slinger Francisco) to the forefront
of the calypso world, where he has remained for nearly half a century. as in
the case of “Sputniks and Mutniks,” the lyrics and music of “russian Satellite”
17. In the sixties, the Soviet Union and several other eastern Bloc countries also issued stamps of
other space dogs, especially Belka, Strelka, Chernushka, and Zvezdochka. Stamps of Laika were
issued later in hungary (1982) and North Korea (1987).
18. “Soviet Smokers Now have Filters,” New York Times, September 11, 1958.
19. In 1992,the title of this center was changed to the all-russian exhibition Centre,but it continues
to be referred to by its previous acronym of VDNKh.
20. See for example, Leonid Vysheslavskii’s poem, “pamiati Laiki,” Zvezdnye sonety (Moscow:
Sovetskii pisatel’, 1962), p. 71.
21. Atomic Cafe Soundtrack (rounder Select, 1994).